Change in power to hamper dev pace, says PM

The prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurates the 410megawatt capacity combined cycle power plant at Bheramara in Kushtia, hundred percent electrification in 15 Upazilas and Online Training Platform-Kushali through a video-conference from Ganabhaban on Thursday.-- BSS photo

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said it will not be possible to continue the country’s current development trend if there is any change in power.‘If the BNP-Jamaat alliance or anyone else comes to power, I have doubt whether they can continue the ongoing development pace. They can’t. Only Awami League can do it,’ she said in her valedictory speech in the 20th session of parliament.To justify her remarks, the prime minister also mentioned how the BNP-Jamaat government in its 2001-2006 tenure destroyed Awami League government’s achievements made during the 1996-2001 tenure.Forming the government in 1996, she said, Awami League found a food deficit by 40 lakh tonnes in the country but her government made the country self-sufficient in food and left the power in 2001 keeping a surplus of 26 lakh tonnes of food.However, returning to power in 2009, her government found that there was a 30 lakh tonnes food deficit in the country, the prime minister added.She said her government enhanced the power generation capacity from 1600 MW to 4300 MW during the period of 1996-2001. But the power generation declined to 3,200 MW in 2009. ‘Now the electricity production capacity is 16,046 MW,’ she said.During the 1996-2001 period, the Awami League government increased the literacy rate to 62.5 per cent from 45 per cent, but the BNP-Jamaat government brought down it to 44 per cent during its tenure. ‘And now the literacy rate is 72 per cent,’ she added.Talking about the Bangladesh’s achievement of eligibility to graduate from the group of least developed countries to a developing one, the prime minister said her government has already accomplished the tasks of the next six years. ‘We must be a developing country in the next six years. If people elect Awami League again in the next general election to be held in December next, we’ll keep on this achievement,’ she said.She claimed that her government has taken the country to such a position in terms of achieving the three graduation criteria that no one will able to push the country backward anymore even if Awami League does not come to power.Sheikh Hasina also assured the country’s people of resolving the rest of the problems.She said the country will get loans from donor agencies easily being elevated to a developing one.Though the concessional loans will decline, no one can impose conditions for giving loan as Bangladesh will be a dignified country when it is a developing one, she said.Praising the 10th parliament, the prime minister said the dignity of this parliament has been established due to constructive criticism by the opposition lawmakers.She said real parliamentary practices are being taken place in parliament now. The indecent languages are not being used now in the House.